


Snakes and Toads (Rubies and Roses)

by tigriswolf



Series: dark fairy tales [29]
Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Les Fées | Diamonds and Toads - Charles Perrault
Genre: Curses, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dubious Consent, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Implied/Referenced Underage, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 04:19:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12148482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: Two sisters, separately, meet an old woman at the well.





	Snakes and Toads (Rubies and Roses)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a fairy tale class I'm currently taking. I'm pretty sure I missed the entire point of the reading that this was meant to be based on, but I like this drabble nonetheless. (It's one I'm not sharing [except with the professor], so I feel I can post it now. Once the semester is over, though, I'm gonna have a shit-tone of fairy tale poems to upload.)
> 
> Warning: I'm using the underage tag because it's heavily implied that the girl who marries the prince is young; how young is up to the reader.

_Give me a sip of water, dearie_ , the old witch croaks, but she’s in a rush and sarcasm drips from her tongue like the water the old witch wants, and the old witch cackles and glows and changes, and now there’s a beautiful fairy with glimmering wings gazing at her, ice in her eyes, and the beautiful fairy croons, _Oh, dearie, I know just what to do with you._

 

She runs, she runs faster than she ever has, tripping along the path, but the fairy’s laughter and the fairy’s curse follow her.  Of course they follow her.

 

No one can escape magic, especially not the evil (step)(half)sister of the tale. 

 

 _I didn’t know,_ she cries (a snake slithering out of her throat).  Who knows they’re one of the villains of the story?

 

.

 

Where do the cursed ones go?  Who accepts them into the home, allows them to sit by the fire on a frozen winter night, offers them water and bread, lets them bathe and rest?  _As we do for the least of these,_ the woman of the house says piously, and her smile is only a little brittle when the cursed one gestures her thanks.

 

As the cursed one rises to her feet, one of the children rushes by, accidentally knocking into her; she gasps in shock and trips back, where her hand brushes against the hearth.

 

Could anyone have the strength of will to not scream when burned?

 

Screams of horror join her scream of pain, and the cursed one flees into the night, leaving only a dozen toads and frogs behind.

 

.

 

Terror is venomous snakes three feet long or less.

 

Anger is non-venomous snakes of any length.

 

Shock is enormous toads.

 

Pain is poisonous frogs.

 

But the happier emotions, the sweeter words?

 

She doesn’t know, for nothing like that comes out of her mouth anymore.

 

**…**

 

And the cursed one’s (step)(half)sister? The blessed one, as those so gifted are called?

 

 _Oh, darling_ , the old witch chortles with the beautiful fairy’s voice, _None of us give true blessings._

 

 

**.**

 

When the prince demands her hand in marriage, she longs to decline, to run back into the woods, to the lovely little cottage she used to keep for her (step)mother and her (step)(half)sister, to the land she knows, the land that knows her, the ground she’s sowed, the pond she’s splashed in, the trees and bushes that saw her birthed and watched her grow.

 

But there is nowhere to return to, no home waiting.

 

 _Of course, Your Highness_ , she murmurs; two opals and three violet petals fall into her hands.  As expected, she gives them to the attendant she can go nowhere without. 

 

 

**.**

 

Everyone envies the peasant woman the prince weds on a bright spring morning.  The beautiful woman ( _barely a woman,_ one courtier mutters to another, _more of a girl than anything,_ because he has a daughter that age) weeps tears of joy throughout the ceremony, and with every tiny hitch of her voice, a pearl tumbles to the floor.

 

 

**.**

 

 _A sip of water, dearie?_ the old witch coughs.

 

 _Of course, Grandmother_ , the girl says, pulling the bucket up and using her own ladle to scoop some water.

 

 _You’re a good girl_ , the old witch says, and in a flash of light, she becomes a beautiful fairy.  _What reward would you like?_

 

The girl blinks at her.  _Reward?_ she asks.  _For a sip of water?_

 

As she lays beside the snoring prince, silent tears running down her face, the blessed one remembers that there was no kindness in the beautiful fairy’s eyes.


End file.
